Sen. John Fetterman said Thursday that the Democratic Party must stop catering to the Democratic Socialists of America, arguing that the far-left faction does not represent working-class voters and should break off to build its own organization.
Speaking on a Newsmax podcast hosted by Greta Van Susteren, the Pennsylvania Democrat pushed back against the idea that the party’s “big tent” needs to accommodate what he described as radical elements.
“I am not a big-tent person if it includes people like that,” Fetterman said. “And for me, like, form your own party and stop. You know, these are the kind of people that, for average voters, they — you know, why Democrats have kind of lost the plot. You know, if we’re willing to entertain idiots like that.”
Fetterman singled out DSA leaders and candidates for policies advocating to “abolish the border, abolish prisons, abolish the Senate,” calling figures in the movement “deeply unserious, deeply ridiculous hypocrites.” He pointed to their backgrounds, arguing many come from privilege while claiming to speak for regular workers.
“You look at some of those terrible DSA types, you know, if you look at their backgrounds, fancy-pants backgrounds, you know, their parents,” Fetterman said, referencing a DSA co-chair in New York whose family purchased a multimillion-dollar property. “This is Mr. Socialism. And I mean, like, the irony of it.”
When asked by Van Susteren whether he faces pushback from colleagues in the Senate over his stances, Fetterman said pressure comes from outside Capitol Hill.
“None of my colleagues in Washington, D.C., but people in the media, or that I’ve heard even secondhand, that they were angry about — you know, like, ‘You’re a traitor,’ or, ‘You’re a Republican,’ or, ‘You are betraying’ — you know, it’s just absurd,” he said. “I mean, I represent a purple state. I represent a state. I don’t just represent Democrats in Pennsylvania. And now, for me, I’m happy and proud to defend any vote that I’ve ever made.”
During the discussion on primary candidates, Fetterman also criticized party figures for failing to publicly denounce controversial figures, specifically calling out political allies tied to Michigan candidate Abdul El-Sayed over foreign policy positions and rhetoric regarding American history and Israel.
“They have these extreme anti-America, anti-Israel, and really now increasingly anti-capitalism — I mean, all of these extreme views — and the Democratic Party are choosing these people,” Fetterman said.
“I strongly reject these kinds of people. I think that makes me a good Democrat,” he added. “But I think that makes me a reasonable and a common-sense Democrat, because these are the kind of people that are not the future of a party — unless I don’t have a future in that party.”
READ: Judge Halts Postal Service Rule Requiring Approvals And Voter Data For Mail-In Ballots
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
